Fungal Biology Ahmed M. Abdel-Azeem  Editor Recent Developments on Genus Chaetomium Fungal Biology Series Editors Vijai Kumar Gupta ERA Chair VALORTECH Estonian University of Life Sciences Tartu, Estonia Maria G. Tuohy School of Natural Sciences National University of Ireland Galway Galway, Ireland About the Series Fungal biology has an integral role to play in the development of the biotechnology and biomedical sectors. It has become a subject of increasing importance as new fungi and their associated biomolecules are identified. The interaction between fungi and their environment is central to many natural processes that occur in the biosphere. The hosts and habitats of these eukaryotic microorganisms are very diverse; fungi are present in every ecosystem on Earth. The fungal kingdom is equally diverse, consisting of seven different known phyla. Yet detailed knowledge is limited to relatively few species. The relationship between fungi and humans has been characterized by the juxtaposed viewpoints of fungi as infectious agents of much dread and their exploitation as highly versatile systems for a range of economically important biotechnological applications. Understanding the biology of different fungi in diverse ecosystems as well as their interactions with living and non-living is essential to underpin effective and innovative technological developments. This series will provide a detailed compendium of methods and information used to investigate different aspects of mycology, including fungal biology and biochemistry, genetics, phylogenetics, genomics, proteomics, molecular enzymology, and biotechnological applications in a manner that reflects the many recent developments of relevance to researchers and scientists investigating the Kingdom Fungi. Rapid screening techniques based on screening specific regions in the DNA of fungi have been used in species comparison and identification, and are now being extended across fungal phyla. The majorities of fungi are multicellular eukaryotic systems and therefore may be excellent model systems by which to answer fundamental biological questions. A greater understanding of the cell biology of these versatile eukaryotes will underpin efforts to engineer certain fungal species to provide novel cell factories for production of proteins for pharmaceutical applications. Renewed interest in all aspects of the biology and biotechnology of fungi may also enable the development of “one pot” microbial cell factories to meet consumer energy needs in the 21st century. To realize this potential and to truly understand the diversity and biology of these eukaryotes, continued development of scientific tools and techniques is essential. As a professional reference, this series will be very helpful to all people who work with fungi and should be useful both to academic institutions and research teams, as well as to teachers, and graduate and postgraduate students with its information on the continuous developments in fungal biology with the publication of each volume. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11224 Ahmed M. Abdel-Azeem Editor Recent Developments on Genus Chaetomium Editor Ahmed M. Abdel-Azeem Botany Department Faculty of Science Suez Canal University Ismalilia, Egypt ISSN 2198-7777 ISSN 2198-7785 (electronic) Fungal Biology ISBN 978-3-030-31611-2 ISBN 978-3-030-31612-9 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31612-9 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 This work is subject to copyright. 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This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland This volume is dedicated to my late parents, Mohamed Ahmed Abdel-Azeem and Aida Elsayed Elayoty, both of whom always had confidence in me and offered me encouragement and support at every stage in my life Also I dedicated this work to my brother Mohamed Mohamed Ahmed Abdel-Azeem and my sister Fatma Soliman El-Hanafy for their unlimited support all the time Ismailia, Egypt Ahmed Mohamed Ahmed Abdel-Azeem Foreword Bioprospection of functional microbial diversity from unique and undisturbed areas for the search of new microorganisms having potential to produce bioactive secondary metabolites is an emerging area of research. Chaetomium species are well known to produce antagonistic potential against several plant pathogens, and the genus has been reported to have more than 350 species. The important mecha- nisms for their antagonistic potential are the production of lytic enzyme and sec- ondary metabolites. The genus is widely reported to have diverse biological activities like helping in biodegradation of municipal waste, and as efficient antioxidant agents and industrial enzyme productions. It is also reported to be a contaminant for human infections like type I allergic reactions and general infections. For example, Chaetomium atrobrunneum results in infections in immunocompromised peoples. Recent Developments on Genus Chaetomium covers most of the important top- ics starting from the diversity, the identification, and the role of genus Chaetomium in natural product biosynthesis. Each chapter provides the future goals in the sub- ject which will be helpful for the researchers and academicians to take the work forward. This volume contains 16 book chapters, and each chapter has colored illustrations which will be easy to follow by the readers. I am confident and strongly believe that the readers will find the contents in this volume as a comprehensive coverage of various important aspects of exploration and exploitation of Chaetomium and their role in sustainable development. Bhim Pratap Singh Department of Biotechnology Aizawl, Mizoram University Mizoram, India vii Preface Chaetomium Kunze (Chaetomiaceae, Sordariales) was established by Gustav Kunze with Chaetomium globosum Kunze as its generic type. The species within this genus are cosmopolitan and usually found in soil and air, and grow on plant debris. This ascomycetous genus is characterized by ostiolate ascomata usually cov- ered with hairs or setae and clavate, fusiform or cylindrical, fasciculate, evanescent asci, and brown to gray-brown, single-celled ascospores with one or two germ pores. Chaetomium has been connected to several anamorphic genera, such as Acremonium, Botryotrichum, Chrysosporium, Histoplasma, Humicola, Phialophora, Scopulariopsis, and Scytalidium. All these genera were described later than Chaetomium except for Acremonium, and the generic names Botryotrichum, Histoplasma, Phialophora, Scopulariopsis, and Scytalidium were used in much less frequencies than Chaetomium. Phylogenetic studies by various investigators provided evidence that the genus Chaetomium was not monophyletic. Also, phylogenetic assessment and taxonomic revision remained to be done for these anamorphic genera, as most of them appeared to be polyphyletic. A number of species produce mycotoxins, including sterigmatocystin, chaeto- globosins, chaetochromin, and mollicellins. Medical cases involving Chaetomium species are quite rare, and all are categorized in ACDP Hazard Group 1. The taxonomy of Chaetomium has been studied by several authors. Since the establishment of the genus, more than 400 species have been described, many of which were synonymized/excluded and only 273 Chaetomium species were accepted according to the Index Fungorum Partnership (IFP 2019). Due to the diver- sity of species and of inhabiting environments, Chaetomium spp. might conceive diverse biosynthetic gene clusters, which transform into various secondary metabo- lites (the fungi languages) to adapt to different ecological environments. Until now, more than 200 compounds with a wide range of bioactive effects have been isolated from Chaetomium spp., but compared with its richness of species, more bioactive secondary metabolites might be found in this member of fungi. Therefore, together with its ubiquitous nature, these species have great significant impact on ecosys- tems, agriculture, food production, biotechnology, and human and animal health. ix x Preface The objective of this volume on the recent developments on genus Chaetomium is to keep the readers informed about the recent developments in research of the genus Chaetomium and the challenges for the researchers to look in the upcoming years. It is very important to shed the light on one of the largest genera of Ascomycetes and to attract the reader’s attention toward the recent developments on genus Chaetomium. This book comprises 16 chapters on genus Chaetomium and is divided into two parts: the first deals with biology and biotechnology, which include the diversity of genus Chaetomium in different ecological habitats, while the second deals with Chaetomium’s metabolites which show the diversity of the genus, both positive and negative. Besides the taxonomic information, some ecological aspects, like distribu- tion and substrate/host preferences, have also been dealt with in some chapters, where appropriate. The book chapters cover the wide applications of Chaetomium taxa recovered from different ecosystems, the methods of identification, and charac- terization of their products. Thus this book presents as much comprehensive information concerning genus Chaetomium as possible. I express my sincere gratitude to all the contributors for their valuable contributions and support throughout. I extend my sincere thanks to the research team working in Systematic Mycology Laboratory, Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Suez Canal University, for their hard work. (December, 2019) Ahmed M. Abdel-Azeem Acknowledgments I am grateful to all of those academicians and scientists with whom I have had the pleasure to work during this project. They happily agreed to share their work on one of the most important genera in Ascomycetes, genus Chaetomium, in this volume. Nobody has been more important to me in the pursuit of this project than the members of my family. I would like to thank my wife, Eman Hussein, and my sons, Mohamed and Abdelwahid, who provide unending inspiration. I am equally thankful to Springer Publishing for their full cooperation during the production of the volume. In particular, I am thankful to the series editors, Dr. Vijai Kumar Gupta and Prof. Maria G. Tuohy, for accepting our proposal and providing their full support and encouragements. I am also thankful to the production team of Springer Nature for all their efforts for publishing the volume on time. I admit that it is quite possible to have some mistakes in the text inadvertently, and I take respon- sibility for the mistakes, and please feel free to inform me the same. I would like to express my sincere thanks to Prof. Bhim Partap Singh, Molecular Microbiology and Systematics Laboratory, Department of Biotechnology, Mizoram University, Aizawl, Mizoram, India, for his kind support during the preparation of this work. I am also thankful to my team of young active and energetic researchers in Systematic Mycology Laboratory, Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Suez Canal University, Egypt. All of them have supported me during all stages and prog- ress of this project. Ismailia, Egypt Ahmed M. Abdel-Azeem xi